Child-safe pill box



Jan. 14, I969 e. E SOTORY CHILD-SAFE PILL BOX Fild April 17, 1967 UnitedStates Patent 3,421,347 CHILD-SAFE PILL BOX Gene E. Sotory, 1164 SummitAve.,'

Jersey City, NJ. 07307 Filed Apr. 17, 1967, Ser. No. 631,278 US. Cl.70-63 Int. Cl. Eb 65/52; B65d 55/14; E05b 37/02 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THEDISCLOSURE This invention relates generally to pill boxes. Morespecifically it relates to pill boxes designed to prevent accessthereinto by unauthorized persons such as children.

Another object is to provide a child-safe pill box that employs aplurality of movable elements all of which must be particularly alignedso to allow removal of the pill box cover to gain entry thereinto.

Other objects are to provide a child-safe pill box which is simple indesign, inexpensive to manufacture, rugged in construction, easy to useand efficient in operation.

These and other objects will be readily evident upon a study of thefollowing specification and the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the invention,

FIGURE 2 is a cross sectional view taken on line 2--2 Of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 3 is a cross sectional view taken on line 33 of FIGURE 2,

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary perspective view of a part of the lockingmechanism.

Refer-ring now to the drawing in detail, the reference numeralrepresents a child-safe pill box according to the present inventionwherein there is a case 11 and cover 12, each of which is of cylindricalconfiguration.

The case 11 includes a cylindrical vessel 13 having opening 14 at itsupper end; the vessel 13 having a radially outward extending flange 15at an intermediate portion of the outer side 16 thereof, the flangehaving an upwardly extending collar 17 at the periphery thereof, thecollar being spaced from the outer side 16. The collar is provided witha series of arcuate slots 18 one over the other.

Additionally a window opening 19 is located adjacent one end of eachslot 18 for a purpose which will be explained herebelow. An arithmeticequation 20 is imprinted upon the outer side 21 of the collar adjacenteach opening 19; each equation comprising the given members of a problemfollowed by an equal sign. The answer to the particular equation islacking and the position of the answer is in the position of the opening19. As shown in FIGURES 1 and 2, an inward extending flange 22 isprovided at the upper end of the collar, the flange 22 having a notch 23therein.

The cover 12 comprises an inverted vessel 24 having opening 25 at itslower end for purpose of fitting over the vessel 13 of the case. Thecover 12 includes a plurality of vertically spaced apart, sidewardlyextending protru- "ice sions 26 which will pass through the notch 23when the case and cover are ported.

A plurality of rings 27 are fitted into the space 28 between the outerside 29 of the cover and the inner side 30 of the collar. Each ring hasan inwardly extending flange 31 having a differently positioned notch 32for purpose of allowing the protrusions 26 to pass therethrough. Eachring has a handle 33 extending outwardly of one of the slots 18 in thecollar for purpose of manually allowing the ring to be rotated. On theouter side 34 of each ring a series of numerals 35 are imprinted each ofwhich may be selectively positioned within the window opening 19 of thecollar.

In operative use, pills are placed within the case and locked therein bymeans of the cover and the lock assembly comprised of the rotatablerings. Access to the pills are denied to any child who is too young toknow the danger of their use. Such child is of an age so that he cannotcompute the equations printed on the collar so cannot associatepresently the proper number in the window openings. However a personwith mature intelligence in use of pills and in knowledge of simplemathematics will know how to open the pill box by rotating each ringuntil the correct answer is provided in the window opening to eachequation. When the rings are thus positioned, the notches on the ringsare in alignment to allow passage of the protrusions 26 through thenotches 32 of the rings, thus allowing the cover to be lifted from thecase so to gain access to the pills.

The novel features and the operation of this device will be apparentfrom the foregoing description. While the device has been shown and thestructure described in detail, it is obvious that this is not to beconsidered limited to the exact form disclosed, and that changes may bemade therein within the scope and the spirit of the invention.

Having thus set forth and disclosed the nature of this invention, whatis claimed is 1. In a pill box, the combination of a case and cover, anda locking mechanism comprised of a plurality of rotatable rings forlocking said cover to said case, said case comprising an upstandingcylindrical vessel having an opening at its upper end, a radiallyoutwardly extending flange on an intermediate outer side of said case,an upward extending collar at the periphery of said flange, said collarbeing spaced from said outer side of said vessel, a plurality of arcuateslots through said collar, a window opening adjacent an end of each saidslot, the given portion of an arithmetic equation imprinted on the outerside of said collar and to the left of each said window opening, and aninward extending flange at the upper end of said collar, said inwardextending flange having a notch there- 1n.

2. The combination as set forth in claim 1 wherein said cover comprisesan inverted cylindrical vessel having an opening at its lower end forreceiving said vessel of said case, and a plurality of radiallyoutwardly extending protrusions in vertical alignment on the outer sideof said case vessel.

3. The combination as set forth in claim 2 wherein said lockingmechanism comprises a plurality of rotatable rings between said collarand the outer side of said cover vessel, each said ring having aninwardly extending flange with a notch in said flange, each said ringhaving a handle receivable through one of said arcuate slots of saidcollar, and each said ring having a series of numerals imprinted on itsouter side for selective alignment within said window opening, saidprotrusions of said cover being verti- 3 4 calIy movable through saidnotches of said rings and said FOREIGN PATENTS upper flange of said caseto separate said cover from 72 4 131 2/1955 Great Britain said case.

References Cited MARVIN A. CHAMPION, Primary Examiner. UNITED STATESPATENTS 5 R. L. WOLFE, Assistant Examiner. 1,127,291 2/1915 Schmidt70-312 1,287,435 12/1918 Rega 70-213 US. Cl. X.R.

1,966,334 7/1934 Cruse 7053 70163, 312

